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News Articles: Chesapeake Bay

Chris Dollar steers his boat on the Ware River in Gloucester, Virginia in September. A charter fishing captain and conservation advocate, Dollar said he sees fewer fish in the bay and its tributaries than he used to. Schools of menhaden that used to be "the size of a football field" have shrunk to "maybe a tennis court," he said.

A small fish is at the center of a big fight in the Chesapeake Bay

Recreational fishermen and conservation groups worry overfishing for menhaden threatens the Chesapeake Bay. Industry says current data doesn't support shutting down the more than century-old fishery.

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By:
  • Katherine Hafner
Tugboats, bottom, align a barge near the container ship Ever Forward, top, which ran aground last month, as workers remove containers from it in efforts to lighten the load and refloat the vessel on April 13.

The Ever Forward is finally free from the Chesapeake Bay — one month later

The Ever Forward had just loaded up with cargo in Baltimore and was heading south to Norfolk, Va., when it ran aground on March 13. It had been stuck ever since — until Sunday morning.

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By:
  • Jaclyn Diaz
Tugboats pull on the Ever Forward near Pasadena, Md., on Tuesday, trying to free the ship as it sits in the Chesapeake Bay after running aground near Baltimore.

A container ship named Ever Forward has been stuck in the Chesapeake Bay for 18 days

The ship ran aground after it apparently missed a turn leaving Baltimore. The vessel is owned by the same company that owns the Ever Given, the ship that blocked the Suez Canal last year.

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By:
  • Laurel Wamsley
Dayton Hall, left, and Jackson Mountjoy use calipers to measure a baby oyster at the school's oyster garden in Bay St. Louis, Miss. The school is among more than 50 locations in Mississippi and more than 1,000 nationwide where people raise oysters to help build reefs off their states' coasts.

Volunteers are growing oyster gardens to help restore reefs

There are more than 1,000 oyster gardens in the coastal waters of Maryland, Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama as volunteers try to restore a keystone of coastal ecosystems.

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By:
  • The Associated Press